UNITED NATIONS, Might 13 (IPS) – UN Secretary-Normal’s briefing to delegates on the UN80 initiative.Subsequent month marks the eightieth anniversary of the United Nations Constitution.
The Constitution is our roadmap to a greater world – our proprietor’s guide setting out functions and ideas – and our sensible information to advancing the three pillars of our work: peace and safety, improvement and human rights.
Anniversaries are a time to look again and rejoice – however they’re much more a time to solid our eyes to the long run. It is just pure – particularly in a interval of turbulence and tumult – to look forward and ask central questions:
How can we be the simplest Group that we might be? How can we be extra nimble, coordinated and match to face the challenges of at present, the following decade, and certainly the following 80 years?
The UN80 Initiative is anchored in answering these questions – and equipping our group in an period of extraordinary uncertainty.
Sure, these are instances of peril.
However they’re additionally instances of profound alternative and obligation. The mission of the United Nations is extra pressing than ever. And it’s as much as us to accentuate our efforts to ship the Sustainable Improvement Objectives and be laser-focused on implementing the Pact for the Future with its many pathways to strengthen multilateralism.
As indicated in my letter of 11 March, the UN80 Initiative is structured round three key workstreams:
First, we’re striving to quickly establish efficiencies and enhancements beneath present preparations.
Second, we’re reviewing the implementation of all mandates given to us by Member States.
And third, we’re endeavor consideration of the necessity for structural modifications and programme realignment throughout the UN system.
Beneath the primary workstream on efficiencies and enhancements, Beneath-Secretary-Normal Catherine Pollard is main a Working Group for the Secretariat that’s growing a administration technique to design a brand new enterprise mannequin for the Group.
The Working Group is targeted on growing cost-reduction and efficiency-enhancement proposals in administration and operations throughout the UN Secretariat.
It’s reviewing administrative capabilities to establish redundancies, streamline processes, and design built-in options – with cost-benefit analyses and clear implementation roadmaps.
Precedence areas embody:
Purposeful and structural consolidation; Workforce streamlining; Relocating companies from high-cost obligation stations; Centralizing IT and assist companies, and increasing automation and digital platforms.
Whereas the Working Group’s quick focus is on administration and operational areas, the remainder of the Secretariat will likely be anticipated to contribute in direction of the effectivity agenda.
For instance, all Secretariat entities in New York and Geneva have been requested to overview their capabilities to find out if any might be carried out from current, lower-cost places, or could in any other case be diminished or abolished.
This particularly pertains to these capabilities that don’t instantly assist inter-governmental our bodies in New York and Geneva.
With respect to the broader UN system, in April, the Excessive-Stage Committee on Administration recognized potential system-wide effectivity measures in areas resembling human assets administration, provide chain administration and data and communications applied sciences.
Concrete proposals are actually being developed, together with figuring out companies that system organizations can present faster, at a lower cost or by means of extra aggressive contracts.
This brings me to the second workstream: mandate implementation overview.
As acknowledged in my 11 March letter, this workstream is about how the UN system implements mandates entrusted by Member States.
We won’t overview the mandates themselves. These are yours to determine on. Our job is to look at and report on how we supply them out, and our aim is to simplify and optimize how we accomplish that.
Almost twenty years in the past, in 2006, an evaluation of mandates and the “mandate-generation cycle” was carried out by the Secretariat.
Quite a lot of issues have been recognized, together with burdensome reporting necessities, overlap between and inside organs, an unwieldy and duplicative structure for implementation, and gaps between mandates and assets.
However let’s be frank. Most of those issues will not be solely nonetheless with us – they’ve intensified.
We should do higher.
Our overview will likely be carried out holistically – wanting on the whole universe of mandates, and on the entirety of their implementation. This overview, subsequently, can’t be restricted to the UN Secretariat, however it’ll begin there.
We have now already accomplished an identification of all mandates mirrored within the programme funds – and can quickly accomplish that for the remainder of the system.
The overview has thus far recognized over 3,600 distinctive mandates for the Secretariat alone. It’s now deepening its examination, clustering these mandates utilizing numerous analytical lenses.
After this analytical work, related entities and departments will likely be invited to establish alternatives for enhancements and consolidation of efforts.
This could consequence within the identification of duplications, redundancies, or alternatives for better synergy on implementation. Naturally, based mostly on this work, Member States could want to think about the chance to conduct themselves a overview of the mandates.
There might be little doubt that the hundreds of mandates in place at present – and our equipment to implement them – stretch the capacities of Member States, particularly these with smaller missions, and the UN system past cause.
It’s as if now we have allowed the formalism and amount of studies and conferences to develop into ends in themselves.
The measure of success just isn’t the amount of studies we generate or the variety of conferences we convene. The measure of success – the worth, goal and intention of our work – is within the real-world distinction we make within the lives of individuals.
This brings me to the third workstream: structural modifications.
Proposals on structural change and programme realignment are prone to emerge from the mandate implementation overview. However we already have the ball rolling by soliciting the views of a variety of UN senior leaders.
Their preliminary submissions – almost 50 in all – present a excessive degree of ambition and creativity.
Final week, we deepened a few of our concepts and occupied with structural modifications in a devoted session of the UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination.
I felt a powerful sense of collective willpower and duty from the leaders of UN entities – a shared resolve to strengthen the system and assume the problem of change and renewal – and a united dedication to deliver to you, our Member States, concrete and bold proposals for a renewed United Nations.
The UN system is extremely numerous consisting of organizations with all kinds of buildings and mandates. To advance our three workstreams, I’ve established seven UN80 clusters – beneath the coordination of the UN80 Activity Drive and in shut cooperation with the Secretariat Working Group.
Every of the seven clusters deliver collectively the organizations that contribute to an analogous particular world targets and related areas of labor. They’ll advance efforts within the three UN80 workstreams – figuring out efficiencies and enhancements, mandate implementation overview, and attainable structural modifications.
They are going to be managed on the Principals’ degree and can encompass the next:
Peace and safety, coordinated by DPPA, DPO, OCT, and ODA;
Improvement within the Secretariat and in improvement now we have two clusters as a result of the work within the Secretariat may be very totally different from the work within the Companies, however the two clusters will likely be working very intently collectively. So, improvement within the Secretariat is coordinated by DESA, UNCTAD, ECA, and UNEP;
Improvement (UN System), coordinated by UNDP, UNOPS, UNICEF and DCO;
Humanitarian, coordinated by the Emergency Reduction Coordinator, WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR, and IOM; Human Rights, coordinated by OHCHR; Coaching and Analysis, coordinated by UNU and UNITAR; and eventually Specialised Companies, coordinated by ITU and ILO.
They would be the locomotive power for concrete proposals. And they’ll function on the excessive degree of ambition that our instances demand – and that additionally echo in massive measure the calls contained within the Pact for the Future.
In all three workstreams, my goal is to maneuver as shortly as attainable.
Initiatives impacting on the Programme Finances for 2026 ready beneath the coordination of the Secretariat Working Group will likely be included within the revised estimates for the 2026 funds to be offered in September.
As , the funds for 2026, the proposal was already given to ACABQ a while in the past and will probably be unimaginable to alter it at this time second. We are going to revise our proposals and current the revised model in September on time for the method to happen for the approval of the funds earlier than the top of the 12 months.
Extra modifications that require extra detailed evaluation will likely be offered within the proposal for the Proposed Programme Finances for 2027. We count on significant reductions within the general funds degree.
For instance, let me describe what’s into consideration within the peace and safety cluster.
First – resetting DPPA and DPO, merging models, eliminating practical and structural duplications, eliminating capabilities which are additionally exercised in different components of the system. I imagine we’ll have the ability to eradicate 20% of the posts of the 2 departments.
Second – an analogous train of streamlining the civilian a part of Peacekeeping.
Third – The consolidation inside OCT of all counterterrorism actions unfold within the system.
Fourth – a overview of the current construction of Regional Workplaces, Particular Representatives and Envoys aiming at a consolidation of the system – with elevated performance and significant financial savings.
The extent of discount of posts that I’ve outlined for DPPA and DPO should be seen as a reference for the broader UN80 train, naturally taking into consideration the specificities of every space of labor.
There could be quick, one-off prices concerned in relocating employees and offering potential termination packages. However by transferring posts from high-cost places, we are able to scale back our industrial footprint in these cities and scale back our put up and non-post prices.
We have now already seen appreciable financial savings in New York by terminating the lease of 1 constructing and transferring employees into different current premises – and we count on to shut two extra buildings when their leases expire in 2027 with appreciable financial savings.
Whereas the common funds is our quick focus, the effectivity efforts will embody the complete Secretariat throughout all funding streams. This may entail some tough selections as we assess buildings and processes and search significant efficiencies.
The impression on Member State contributions will likely be seen for years. However we can not obtain the efficiencies required except we additionally concentrate on the programmatic areas of our work.
Devoted outreach with the broader UN system is now underway, and can take revenue of the work of the established clusters. Extra proposals ensuing from the opposite workstreams will likely be submitted to Member States for consideration as applicable.
Many modifications would require the approval by the Normal Meeting this 12 months and subsequent. I’ll seek the advice of intently and frequently with Member States on progress, in search of steering on the best way ahead, and presenting concrete proposals for dialogue and decision-making when applicable.
We all know that a few of these modifications will likely be painful for our UN household. Workers and their representatives are being consulted and heard. Our concern is to be humane {and professional} in coping with any side of the required restructuring.
The UN80 Initiative is a big alternative to strengthen the UN system and ship for individuals who depend upon us.
It’s central for implementing the Pact for the Future. It’s essential for advancing the Sustainable Improvement Objectives. The wants of the folks we serve should stay our guiding star.
We should at all times persist with ideas. We mustn’t ever compromise core values. We should without end uphold the needs and ideas of the UN Constitution.
We are going to advance all this work in order that our three pillars – peace and safety, improvement and human rights – are mutually strengthened, and the geographical steadiness of our workforce and our gender and incapacity methods will likely be preserved.
And we will likely be ever aware of the pursuits of all Member States – growing nations, specifically. Your energetic engagement and assist for the UN80 Initiative is significant to make sure that efforts are inclusive, revolutionary, and consultant of the wants of all Member States.
The success of the UN80 Initiative depends upon all of us dwelling as much as our shared and complementary duties. Many choices finally are in your arms as Member States. A lot of you may have agreed that this should be the second to be daring and bold.
That’s what our Group wants – and that’s what our instances demand. Make no mistake – uncomfortable and tough selections lie forward.
It could be simpler – and even tempting – to disregard them or kick the can down the highway.
However that highway is a lifeless finish. We can not afford to behave in another approach than with the very best degree of ambition and customary goal.
Allow us to seize this momentum with urgency and willpower, and work collectively to construct the strongest and only United Nations for at present and tomorrow.
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